PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

Here is a guide for any poor unfortunate souls who happen to be stuck with Via and can't do anything about it, this was tested on a abit kt7a, it should also work on a kt266 or k133 But the usual try this at your own risk disclaimer applies

The pci slot:
My creamware card is in the very bottom slot the one that shares with isa.
This is becuase according to the block diagram in my mobbo manual it is addressed first by the bus, this for me is where I got best performance



Lets start with bios settings
Softmenu III setup:
cpu command decode = normal
enhance chip performance = disabled
force 4 way interleave = disabled
Advanced bios features:
Video bios shadow = disabled
Dram bank interleave = 4 way
pci mater pipeline req = enabled
p2c/c2p concurrency = enabled
Fast r-w turnaround = disabled
system bios cacheable = disabled
video ram cacheable = disabled
agp aperture size = 64m
agp 4x mode = disabled
fast writes = disabled
cpu/pci write buffer = enabled
pci master 0ws write = enabled
pci delay transaction = enabled
pci master read caching = enabled
pci#2 access #1 retry = enabled
pci master timeout = 15 (highest it will go on mine)
agp master 1 ws write = disabled
" " " read = disabled
pnp/pci configuration:
pnp os installed = no
assign irq for usb = disabled
Also remember to disable usb completely
And if you have an option set your creamware card to use irg 9.

Ok now for the os, I've had some good results out of 98se/lite but stability has always been an issue for me, even before I started tweaking, I recommend winxp if you have the horsepower for it.

Install Winxp with no acpi, F7 on install I think, I have never had to do this, because I have the option in the bios. (thanks to http://www.biosmods.com)
Its a good idea to have the lastest bios as well.

After install, put in the lastest 4in1 drivers which at the moment are 4.38,
I am very secptical about the stability of the via gart driver, thus try not installing it to begin with.

But in the lastest video drivers choose your most confortable reso, as usual on a daw leave your bit depth at 16bits.

Install pulsar software and driver

Ok now install the georges via latency patch version 0.19d according to the guy who makes it the d version is experimental. But for 133a's it is neccesary as the 0.19 version provides lesser performance.
133/133a patch http://www.angelfire.com/darkside/pulsa ... y_v019.zip
266 patch http://www.angelfire.com/darkside/pulsa ... _v019d.zip
(must use save target as)

If you are using winxp in system properties/advanced/performance settings click adjust for best performance.
And also set adjust for best performance of background services.

Now install a utility called powerstip.
http://www.entechtaiwan.com/ps.htm
This is an incredibly useful util that can fix a whole range of issues not just graphics related.

In powerstip go into; options >adapter information.
Now because of the bios settings made, I have limited the agp graphics card to 2x transfer mode powerstip should reflect this. Now your thinking what the hell does this have to do with the pci bus, but the graphics goes through the northbridge just ike the data from the pulsar does.

Bring down the latency of the agp card down from whatever value to 128.
A warning will come up hit yes to the first box, and hit no when it ask you is you want to save for next session (just in case it crashes)
Now at the top right hand corner you can select all you perhiperals.
Set any networks cards down to the lowest setting of 8.
Also set the via ide controller to 16.
(If you need to run a lot of audio tracks I suggest maybe putting it at 24 or leaving it at 32, but try 16 to start with)
Now the creamware card, you might want to experiment; values upwards of 96 worked best for me, I left it at 160, just for overkill.
Exit powerstrip no restart is required.


Now see how many masterverbs you can run!
For picture proof of this little fix look at
http://www.geocities.com/remix_me/

if all is well go back into powerstrip and set the latency again this time selecting yes to save settings for next time.
Good luck hope it works as well for you as it did for me!!



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: remixme on 2002-04-07 08:33 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: remixme on 2002-04-20 05:50 ]</font>

That was very thorough. Thank you. I do not have many of those BIOS settings however, but I will try it out within the next week

Immanuel

Sorry if the links don't work, I'm trying to fix it.
The most important bit is the latency patch and setting the latencies with powerstip. The latency patch replicates a lot of the bios settings listed here so you should the same effect
Good luck anyway

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: remixme on 2002-04-07 08:31 ]</font>

Hi All,
I'm allways terrible astonished if I read posts as your's Remixme.
A great job it is for sure!

I'm not going for a (useless) pc vs mac discussion.
It's just fascinating me that one has to tweaken so delicat before being abled to work.
I'm sure I wouldn't fix it at all.
With the next software or computer I would have to go through the same pain again

Before I visited CW's forum and planetz I never even had heard of 'tweaks' and 'tweakenings'.
Off course a mac has to be very well prepared too for audio or/and medea, but this is a job everybody can learn by himself, obvious there's no dependancy on the hardware used.

But what I'm interested in is not the way software and hardware cooperate, rather I would like to know how we, users of the technology, cooperate with the machines and in particular how we *feel* about it.

I mean I could not believe the most of you really like it to have to deal with all those horrible details of Remixme's unbelieveble list (Bill should pay you, R.).
At the same time I can not believe that mony is the breaking point.
For some it is, no shame, but for others it's not.
However it's unlikely anyone used to pc will change to mac.

At this point I'm gonne think well they must like it deep in their heart.
They like problem solving and get good feelings after a difficult problem has fixed.

It also can be that it is because we all (? see threads) are man, so it's all about hunting and fixing it.
And when the hunting has done and we take a rest we make some music

Or is it that man like machines, but we are in competition with them, we wanne controll them, therefor we need struggle, we have to solve problems.

I don't know, but than I'm not a man, because I don't like it to keep the machine running.

Regulary I have to deal with problems, mostly with Cubase and ASIO, and I hate it to reboot and restart with new preferences to reset everything.
It takes an hour or two, and you ve' lost contact with the song, I hate that.
I don't know, how do you feel about this?

mm, so I'm a woman.
I thought my mac was that

Let There Be Music!

I'm confused are you actually a woman?
That would make you the first official woman member of planet Z!
I sort of get the feeling that you were speaking metaphorically though.

I like macs as a genaral rule, they get the job done. we have one of shiny new titanium powerbook and a biege G3 266.
but these are outnumbered by pcs. The g3 was my main midi workstation last year.
I'm just quicker on a pc.

I did enjoy the chanlenge of tweaking my computer. Mainly because it has saved me about 300 euro. Which as a student (please don't laugh!) I simply cannot afford,
I couldn't really afford the time to fix the problem either, my deadline is 1st may!!!! For two compositions, a recording and and arrangement!
All of which are barely started.

So it was a case of I have to make the best of what I have, I had to make this work. And I thought I've spend so much time trying to fix this problem, I may as well spend a little more time sharing my experience with others.

That was my motivation for it. Thank you for your support.

hey Remixme, no I'm not a woman, would be a hard job between hundreds of man...
300 € is a lot of mony, and for sure it's worth the efforts, even without being a student (I also used to be one before).
I had a beige G3/233 before I bought Pulsar.
It was a damn thing to me to have to invest in a new computer *because* of buying Creamware.
'DSP saves CPU', but first I had to buy a new CPU !

Wish you good luck getting the job done in time!
Thanks for reply

More tips,
For those having instablity issues, and have more than one stick of memory. This doesn't just apply to VIA chipsets.
If you have ram in slots 1&2 try moving one module from slot 2 into 3.
As 1&2 share the same power, and also can help if the both modules are not of the same brand.

Also increasing the vcore voltage ever so slightly can improve stabity, especially with lower quality power supplies. But a decent quiet powersupply is as always recommended for audio work.

By the way: Be aware of the shipped with Vatapi.vxd (which is a very old one) it might cause CDrom diffculties. From the insatller choose deinstall when the screen for Vatapi pops up.